ABOUT

Thank you for your interest in learning more about Mountain Pets. When you 'contact us', you are communicating directly with Joanna Taylor as the business owner and your professional, certified pet sitter. See below for more information about her pet care qualifications.

​

Established in 2017

Mountain Pets was born in 2017 as a dog boarding service and expanded to a full-service boarding and farm and pet sitting business in 2019.  Our unique services are the culmination of more than 30 years of professional and personal animal care experience, training and certifications. Our business services are designed around the goal of offering pet clients a different option than what is available on online pet care platforms, at traditional kennel facilities or at a family member's house. 

​

Dog Experience

My parents instilled in me that life without a dog in the house is not an option. As a young adult, I researched dog breeds and decided that I had a strong interest in Australian Shepherds and I got my first puppy at age 24, raised three litters and am on my forth Aussie now. I began boarding dogs in 2017, and through this have had the unique fortune of getting to know the individual characteristics of many, many dog breeds, some of which I had never heard of before. Over the past eight years of boarding dogs, I have become exceptionally skilled in assessing dog behaviors and temperments. Alongside of this, I continue to learn best practices through dog-specific training courses and networking with other dog professionals. I have gained an extraordinary amount of insight into managing multiple dogs together in a home environment and in off leash situations.

​​

Bird Experience

As a child I had my own parakeets and lovebirds in my bedroom and learned very quickly that sleeping IN with birds is not an option. However, most of my professional bird experience was gained early in my adult career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, first as an animal caretaker and then a biological technician. There, I worked in the captive propagation research group for endangered birds, which involved hands-on care of whooping cranes, sandhill cranes, bald eagles, Andean condors, vultures, masked bobwhite quail and chickens. I cared for and handled a variety of birds on a daily basis, assisted with veterinary health checks and emergencies and performed artificial insemination. I managed a chicken flock for surrogate incubation of endangered crane eggs and managed the breeding flock of endangered masked bobwhite quail, producing and rearing approximately 3000 chicks per year for release back into the wild. This work gave me a one-of-a-kind foundation for bird care. I began offering bird boarding through my business in 2023 and have a dedicated "bird room".  

​​​

Horse Experience

I began riding horses at seven years old and volunteered at a large Appaloosa horse farm until I was thirteen, spending weekends on the care crew; feeding, turning out and bringing in horses, mucking stalls and assisting with horse breeding by handling the mares. I became a horse owner at age thirteen and acquired my second horse in my twenties. I owned both horses for their entire lives and moved them around with me across the country. At times I worked for reduced board to make it work and other times I kept them with me at my home and managed their daily care. Besides the breadth of experience I received at that Appaloosa farm as a child, I learned so much about horses as the health of my own two began to fail due to old age. My horse ownership chapter closed in 2019 and I am now focused on leveraging my horse-related knowledge, skills and abilities to offer care for people who have a difficult time finding experienced and reliable care options.

​​

Additional Qualifications

Below are a few more details about the owner's qualifications. Client references are available on request.
​​​

Pet Sitting Certifications                       

• Professional Pet Sitter Certification - requires 32 CEU's training to maintain and renew

• Pet First Aid & CPR

​​

Professional Memberships

• Pet Sitters International

​​​

Animal-related Experience

• 40 years of horse ownership and horse farm management

• 30 years of owning and breeding Australian Shepherds

• 30 years of cat ownership

• 10 years of owning freshwater aquariums, pet birds and rabbits​​